


Of Family and Home

by silveryink



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Badass Toph Beifong, Brother-Sister Relationships, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Post-Canon, Theater kid zuko, Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings, Toph Being Awesome, Zuko (Avatar) is a Good Brother, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, iroh appears for like 3 seconds in the end so he's not tagged
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:55:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25037332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveryink/pseuds/silveryink
Summary: Two years after the end of the Hundred-Year War, Toph and Zuko travel to the Earth Kingdom in time for her birthday.
Relationships: Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 20
Kudos: 501





	Of Family and Home

**Author's Note:**

> This fic took me by surprise, but it all stemmed from a Thought I had at four in the morning a few days ago: what if Toph and Zuko attended an Earth Rumble together some few years in the future?  
> So, uh. I just needed an excuse to write some found family fluff and I just seized the opportunity as soon as I found it.
> 
> I guess this might be an unofficial sequel to 'Of Brothers and Sisters', but it can absolutely be read as a standalone!

One day, Toph thinks, she’ll pay attention to and follow Zuko’s instincts. When she’d told him about her decision to return to Gaoling for her birthday, his heart rate had sped up even though he’d been calm and entirely truthful when he replied that he’d accompany her, because he wanted to celebrate her birthday _with_ her. It’s sweet, especially coming from someone who hates his own birthday with an almost burning passion, and Toph _does_ appreciate the gesture. She simply hadn’t known what to make of that spike in his pulse at her declaration.

From where she’s sneaking into the Earth Rumble tournaments to enrol as a returning contender, she absolutely _does_ , and mentally kicks herself for not realising it sooner. Zuko may be awful at planning, but he has amazing instincts. This frightening combination usually leads to good outcomes despite his lack of an idea as to what he’s supposed to be doing, but it’s deadly useful outside such scenarios.

Like predicting the utter fiasco that was visiting her parents after two years.

She supposes it’s not entirely his instincts at work there – he’s got bad enough experiences with his own family to have picked up some form of patterns from her anecdotes about her life in Gaoling before she ran away with Aang, Sokka and Katara and subconsciously put them together. Regardless of whether he actually knew about said unconscious reaction, Toph should have known to trust it.

It's not so bad, though – she’s clearly recognised by the person monitoring the entrance and let through without fuss, and her old opponents cheer when she enters the antechamber they’re supposed to wait in until they’re called. A spark of guilt flares inside her when she remembers how she left Zuko alone to deal with her parents’ wrath, but Lao and Poppy Beifong are about as intimidating as the turtleducks back in the Fire Nation. She stamps out that little spark and grins widely at the much larger contenders before her.

“Surprised to see me?”

A familiar, muscular figure stands and walks over to her, clapping a hand on her shoulder gruffly. “The Boulder is happy to see the little metalbender who took down the Fire Lord.”

“Nah, buddy,” she says, elbowing him amiably in the side, “Aang took care of that mess; I just punched Ozai a couple of times afterward. What I _actually_ did was take down an entire airship fleet with my friends.”

A guffaw in the background sent heads swivelling and several hearts picking up their pace.

“Is anyone seriously buying this? She’s, what, thirteen?”

“Fourteen,” she corrects flatly. “I suppose you’re new?”

“Yep. I don’t fight kids, though.”

“Too bad,” Toph retorts. “I’m not against throwing rocks at adults, even though you don’t seem to be one.”

“Please. _Metalbending_? That’s not a thing!”

Toph just grins, the expression that bares a lot of teeth and, according to her friends, is absolutely terrifying to anyone but them. And perhaps Uncle – short of Zuko getting seriously hurt, she doubts there’s anything in the world that would scare the kindly old man.

At any rate, she isn’t metalbending in an Earth Rumble match. She can beat the others up with regular earthbending, period.

She goes to reply, but the announcer starts his usual speech to a wave of cheers. The first pair are called up, and Toph lowers herself to the ground with a thump, bending a seat to support her back while she’s at it. Might as well be comfortable as she waits.

“And now, we have a returning competitor – a champion you all know as _The Blind Bandit_!”

The wave of cheers is much louder now than it has been for any of the others, Toph notes with some amount of satisfaction. She cracks her knuckles. “It’s my time to shine,” she informs the others, who eagerly push her onstage.

She’s greeted by applause and loud waves of cheers, and graciously accepts them before slipping into stance. “The Boulder, huh?” she asks and grins at her old ally. “This seems awfully like old times.”

“The Boulder will not estimate the Blind Bandit this time,” he says serenely, then stomps down _hard_ , sending a ripple of earth outward. Toph easily twists her foot and dispels it around her, but is impressed by the new trick.

It’s still painfully easy to get his guard down, but he lasts a bit longer than last time. Though it’s not saying much, considering she beat him in less than thirty seconds when she was twelve. She doesn’t mind that it took longer, honestly. It’s more interesting when the older guys learn new tricks. She’s fonder of the Boulder than the rest, though, so she lays off the beating and leaves him only _slightly_ battered, as opposed to the rest.

‘The rest’ being a returning contender, Fire Nation Man (she feels bad about Zuko missing that fight, because spirits, he _still_ preludes his fights with that anthem?) and the newbie, apparently called ‘Cliff’. It’s a stupid stage name, and she readily imparts that information to him. She’s a bit disappointed that he takes it badly and chucks a rock at her instead of thanking her and asking her for suggestions.

She beats Cliff in record time. It’s probably embarrassing, but she’s declared champion again, so what does she care?

“Our champion once more, the Blind Bandit!” Xin Fu announces, and the ensuing cheers are _deafening_. Toph’s ears are ringing but she can sense someone vaulting off the stands onto the stage and running up to her, even as her old allies do the same from the other side. There’s no declaration of other fights, but the turn out must have been massive this year for lack of audience participation.

The Boulder and the newcomer hoist her onto their shoulders, and she flaps her hands about as she sways, slapping their face by accident and finding toughened scar tissue in the place of skin.

Wait.

_“Zuko?!”_

Her brother _laughs_ and clasps her forearm for a moment with her free one. Toph is genuinely surprised by the sound – he’s gotten much better with laughing but it’s mostly been limited to snickers when she passes a dry comment under her breath or huffed half-laughs when he finds something mildly amusing. She’s never once heard Zuko truly laugh, and the revelation is as startling as the action and so very lovely all the same.

“I came here to watch you beat up some earthbenders,” Zuko explains, “but now I _also_ get bragging rights. Earth Rumble is amazing, I should never have doubted you on that.”

“I mean, I’m usually right, but what was that about bragging rights?”

She can _hear_ the grin in his voice when he replies. “What, did you _not_ think I was going to tell everyone that I have the coolest sister in the world?”

Okay, she had adopted Zuko as her older brother from the time he carried her around after accidentally burning her feet and repeatedly apologising, but if she’d had more siblings, this comment alone made it clear that he’d be her absolute favourite.

She ignores the confused stutter of the Boulder’s heartbeat as she shifts to sit solely on Zuko’s shoulders. She hugs his head from the back and laughs when he stumbles, but her blood _sings_ with victory and something she suspects is love.

* * *

The carriage that Zuko called to take them to Ba Sing Se is made of wood.

It doesn’t bother her much, but the sensation of being able to feel the rattle of the carriage without getting more output is unsettling. All she feels to indicate Zuko’s presence is the gentle warmth he always radiates, but in the absence of his heartbeat, the feedback from the ostrich-horses up front, the driver, it’s close to driving her crazy. Even flying on Appa bareback wasn’t nearly this bad.

She jumps when Zuko rests his hand gently on hers but relaxes when he tugs gently. She takes the invitation gratefully and curls into his side, relishing the contact and the limited senses she can glean from the rise and fall of his chest. She’s long since learned that Zuko can be read like a book through his breathing patterns alone, but she’d like her entire field of earthbending-sight again, thanks very much.

“I forgot that the Earth Kingdom doesn’t usually have transportation made of metal,” he says apologetically, and she can tell from his voice that he’s probably looking out of a window.

“It’s weird,” she agrees. “In the Fire Nation, there’s almost nothing made entirely of wood – some of the rooms have wood-panelled floors, but even those are on a bedrock or some kind of foundation beneath. Nobody expects accidents related to fires in the Earth Kingdom, and most earthbenders don’t rely on their element to see.”

His arm starts to move in light, absent patterns. She’s soothed by the movement, but suspects Zuko doesn’t even realise what he’s doing.

“I’m bored,” she complains. “There’s absolutely nothing to do here.”

“I could describe what’s outside for you,” Zuko offers.

She wrinkles her nose. “Eh. I was raised here, I’ve sensed and mapped out the whole area when I ran away those few times. It’s mostly fields and meadows. Also, my parents tried to describe what the flowers looked like when they let me travel with them the one time, and completely forgot that colours don’t mean anything when you can’t see them.”

Zuko’s hand stills and twitches. “That’s… not great.”

“It isn’t,” she says with a sigh. “But you saw how they were. They’ve been exactly like that all my life, even right after my dad saw me beat up a bunch of Earth Rumble contestants. _Single-handedly_.”

A soft chuckle above her. “They’re the blind ones in this situation,” he says. “And incredibly foolish, if they don’t see you for who you are.”

“Ugh, don’t get started with the mushy talk,” she grumbles, burying her face into his side to hide her blush. She doesn't like being confronted with feelings.

“I think you need to hear this, though,” Zuko presses. “You’re _incredible_ , you know that, right? Not just for your bending. Even without it, you’d be one of the strongest people I know. But you do have it,” he adds, "and that's, like, fifty times cooler."

She groans and burrows further into his side. His hand shifts and secures around her firmly, feeling warm and _safe_. Zuko’s a complete _sap_ , and despite his emotional constipation he’s pretty astute when it comes to others. Or perhaps it’s just her, but he’s not entirely _wrong_ , which makes it annoying as it is wholesome.

“I said I was bored, not in the mood for a therapy session,” she mumbles, grinning up at him so that he knows she isn’t mad or uncomfortable. It's always nice to be reminded that she's appreciated for who she is.

“Toph, I think you have me mistaken for someone else,” he says dryly. “I could always write a letter to the honourable Private Wang Fire, part-time therapist and unfortunately deceased–”

“Wait, you heard about that?”

“I was inspecting military records between Ba Sing Se and the eclipse,” Zuko explains, “and found that a new batch of recruits was to be shipped off to the front lines. I fudged the records so that an older, more experienced battalion would go instead.”

Oh, no. That’s his guilty voice. Toph wants to stop him, but she thinks that’s not what he needs right now. She stays silent, careful to keep her expression neutral. She’s curious, at any rate, and doesn’t really want to stop him.

“It was wrong to send those men back into direct fighting, I know, but I couldn’t – I couldn’t watch those new recruits get sacrificed _again_. I couldn’t take it up with Ozai, but… anyway. I thought one of the names was weird, like, who names their kid _Wang Fire_ , but I was too distracted at the time. Then you guys told me about whatever you did while you were in the Fire Nation, and I thought that Sokka’s alias sounded familiar, but I didn’t really put it all together until I was reviewing the casualty reports after ending the war.”

“Wait, Private Wang Fire is _dead_?” Toph asks gleefully. Sokka’s going to have a field day with this.

“Officially declared and everything,” Zuko replies with mounting amusement. “And there was a small painting of his face too, with a full beard and everything. I can’t believe the recruitment officers bought it, it was ridiculous!”

Oh, it absolutely was. Toph cackles for a good five minutes, and she can feel Zuko shaking as he laughs with her.

“I’m still bored, you know,” Toph says, and Zuko hums. There’s a pause.

“I could read aloud,” he offers, sounding almost shy. “I’m not the best storyteller, but…”

“Sure,” Toph interrupts, because why not. He stills beside her, and Toph wonders if she did something wrong.

“O-okay,” he stutters, then clears his throat. “‘ _In the heart of the Fire Nation–’_ ”

“Woah, wait, you haven’t even told me what story this is supposed to be!”

“Right,” Zuko says, and Toph is absolutely certain he’s blushing. “It’s called _The Revenge of the Kemurikage_. They’re mountain spirits who snatch children in the middle of the night when they misbehave. Those tales are mostly told to kids wo make sure they behave, and someone decided to write a book about it, I guess.”

“Sounds interesting.”

“I didn’t have access to much fiction when I was banished, but Uncle got me the scroll for my first birthday outside the Fire Nation.”

Toph smiles, that sounds exactly like something Uncle would do. “That’s really sweet,” she allows. “Now, are you going to tell me the story or what?”

Zuko laughs and launches into narrating the story like it’s what he was made for. Toph is enraptured by the plot, but is equally caught up in the way his entire demeanour changes while he recounts the entire thing. Suddenly, she remembers that she never heard the tell-tale rustle of a scroll being unfurled. Zuko’s hand is still on her forearm, and for a story as long as this, one would need to use both hands to keep track of the rolled-up paper. Her brother is particularly careful with the management of such artifacts and other manuscripts (and playbills, because she _knows_ that despite how terrible _The Boy in the Iceberg_ had been, he kept the thing for unknown reasons).

She interrupts him as he reaches the bit where the little girl is captured by the Kemurikage. “Wait, Sparky, are you reciting this from memory?”

“Um… yes?”

That shouldn’t really be a question, but Zuko’s still working on his informal communication skills, so she lets it slide. “When did you memorise an entire scroll like that?”

“I told you, I didn’t have much access to fiction, so I just read it over and over until I committed it memory.”

Huh. That’s impressive. She wonders if he also memorised some of those Air Nomad scrolls he’d mentioned a while ago, because she thinks he’s one of the only people who might have seen them in a hundred years. If he could recreate those scrolls, however much he remembers, a part of a lost culture could be salvaged once vouched for by Aang.

She files away the idea for later, poking him once more to indicate her need to hear more. “Cool. What happened to the Fire Lord’s sister?”

By the time the carriage rolls to a stop, the young girl kidnapped from the heart of the Fire Nation turns out to be a powerful firebender and melts the door open so that the children can be freed, just in time for the Fire Lord to discover what was going on and return them safely to their homes.

“I guess we should get down now,” Zuko says, peering through the window.

“Finally! I can’t wait to get some actually good tea from Uncle. My parents may be rich, but they have horrible taste in blends. Even you brewed a lot better when you started out in the Air Temple.”

He laughs, and she clambers over him to leap onto the solid, comforting ground below her. When he hops down beside her, she’s lying down entirely and stretching like she’s sensed him do in a sunspot in the gardens. “Ahh, some good earth at last. I’m never doing this again.”

Zuko chuckles at her relief and offers a hand to pull her up. “Are you ready to take the trains again?”

“Oh, yeah, absolutely. I’m going to tell Uncle all about how I beat up those weaklings in the Earth Rumble – it’s like they get worse every year!”

The two of them chatter continuously throughout their train ride like there’s no tomorrow (or, alternatively, like Sokka) about everything and nothing in particular, paying no heed to the stares of other passengers, regardless of whether they cast looks at them that are scathing due to their volume, mildly fond to see two people their age laughing and messing around after a century of sadness, or curiosity-turning-to-recognition when they put together the scar on Zuko’s face, and the dents in the metal below Toph’s feet.

She can’t tell why they’re looking, anyway, so she doesn’t really care.

She bursts into the store loudly with Zuko at her heels, and Iroh greets them with a surprised and welcoming cry. The Jasmine Dragon is mostly empty and the few employees are clearing out the tables, turning in their aprons and changing out of their uniforms as they call out farewells to the kindly owner. The last employee’s heart thrums with dismay at the appearance of the two siblings, but it swiftly turns to confusion as they make a beeline for Uncle’s already extended arms.

Well. _Zuko_ makes a beeline for Uncle. Toph simply takes a running leap at the pair and ignores Zuko’s confused shouting as they stagger back.

She’s mindful of Uncle’s age, of course, and steadies the ground beneath them so that they don’t fall over. That kind of movement can _not_ be good for someone as old as Iroh, regardless of how in shape he might be after all those years of warring and wrangling Zuko into having some semblance of common sense.

“It’s good to see you both,” Iroh says warmly, and in his embrace (and the sharp dig of Zuko’s elbow in her side) she finally understands what ‘family’ means.

**Author's Note:**

> A few notes on references to the comics (for those who haven't read them):
> 
> \- Sokka temporarily joined the Fire Nation Army in order to understand 'what made them tick' and ended up nearly being drafted to the front lines, charged for desertion, and declared dead after escaping with the rest of the Gaang. [It's in the comic 'The Lost Adventures' and the story's name is 'Private Fire']
> 
> \- 'The Revenge of the Kemurikage' is a nod to the comic 'Smoke and Shadow'; mostly because I realised while framing my 'what happened to Ursa' headcanon that I left out Kiyi and thought that it was a shame, because she's a genuinely adorable character in the comics (as Zuko and Azula's 5-year-old half-sister who absolutely adores her big brother). There's a bit in the third part that follows the summary in the second scene where Kiyi tries to imitate Zuko's firebending moves and *melts a hole into the metal door* so that she and the other kids escape.
> 
> I don't necessarily vibe with comics canon but I did enjoy them, so this is kind of my twist on those events. Also, I 110% headcanon that Toph became spoiled by Iroh and Zuko's tea and now regular tea basically tastes like hot leaf water compared to the ones her family makes.
> 
> (I'm aware that the Boulder decided to ditch the Earth Rumble tournaments for the sake of fighting against Ozai and the Fire Nation, but I'm just going to ignore that for a moment because why not)
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed!


End file.
